Haying with our mother

My mother with one of the poles in 1962. These are two of my children, Carol and Mike Eldreth, and Mr. Cook, a friend from Roanoke, Va.

In the 1950s and 1960s we worked in the fields without modern equipment and tractors. We put up hay, raking it by hand into rows and then into “shocks.” We used two long poles that we put under the shocks. With me in front and my brother in back, we carried the shocks to where it was to be stacked.

My mother had to get up onto the stack, going from side to side, working until all the hay was on the stack several feet high. When she finished, we put the long poles up the stack so she could slide down.